Beijing Defends
Currency Policy
After G-7 Rebuke

By

Denis McMahon and

Lingling Wei

Updated April 24, 2006 12:01 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON -- Following the sharpest rebuke yet of China's foreign exchange policy from the world's most developed nations, the chief of China's central bank Saturday defended the pace of the yuan's appreciation and challenged the economic orthodoxy being touted by Washington.

The Group of Seven nations -- in a statement issued following their meeting ahead of the International Monetary Fund-World Bank spring meetings in Washington -- singled out China to take action to move toward greater foreign-exchange flexibility. It...